[MU] - FEELING LIKE A GHOST (PART II)

[lifeaftr_mods]

"No, no...no!"

The Storyteller's voice cuts through the inkdrop-dark, frantic and scrambling. A distant blot of campfire gutters in the far distance - far from where you are. The disorientation of the week preceding this one has translated into Mu, and everything is hopelessly out of place. The Storyteller sounds muffled, clearly addressing someone or something else, their voice cushioned by the uniform, void-like night.

"Stop it. Stop it! I wasn't gone for very long at all. You can't behave for two weeks? You have to make it all...all...wrong? I can't keep this up - not with what I've had to do since returning - !"

Gradually, however, the shadowy campsite solidifies into being. Or...a semblance of it does, in any case. Four glistening pyres rear out from the shadows, each glowing a different color. The strange material that domes them almost resembles worked steel, forming different patterns against their multicolored backdrops.

[ ♆ ] The first glows a deep crimson, kicking scarlet embers into the dream-night air. Its pit sphere portrays a crowd of people in silhouette, heads bowed in genuflection - paying homage to some looping, many-coiled shape in the sky above.

[ ♆ ] The second glows a deep orange. Its pit sphere is worked into the shape of a looming mountain, with what might be some sort of village or ruin sprawled at its base.

[ ♆ ] The third's flames are a rich green. Its designs are most abstract; the starburst patterns that swirl across the metallic composition of its fire pit sphere could be explosions, maybe...or something else entirely.

[ ♆ ] The fourth pyre is one bearing host to golden flames, amber sparks sprayed out from behind the shape of a set of scales nestled among a flurry of birdlike shapes.

Beside each pyre is heaped a pile of sticks, colored to correspond to their respective flames. The Storyteller sounds agitated when they manage to speak again:

"Will you let them at least make the choice I left to gave them?" When there is no response, they sigh. "If you can hear me...I can't make it clearer than that, at the moment. Pick one. Pick one, quickly, and try to get out before it decides to make things worse! Just add a stick to whichever one looks best to you!"

Unfortunately, whether you abstain from voting or make your choice, that's not all there is to this night...



Tonight's Storytelling, further warped by Mu's capricious nature, will likely feel familiar to those of you who were with us in December of the year prior. Only this time, you don't get much choice in what kind of story you're telling...or, indeed, any choice in the matter at all. As you wake by the Storytelling campfire, Mu shifts to form three separate events from your character's present - which is to say, within one full year of their current canonpoint - in the most stark and painstaking of detail. There is no altering the memory, nor is there any preventing it once it's begun to play. You will simply have to witness memories that are not your own this go around.

Furthermore, stories that take place in worlds other than LifeAftr will be, frankly, inevitable. Those memories, too, will be recreated, to be relived by the teller and lived by the listener.

---

While the initial setting will be familiar for oldcomers, and newcomers will recognize it from the introduction they received in their dreams, things will be far more similar to the memory share that occurred in December. All memories must be from within one year of your character's canonpoint. For questions, please refer to our OOC event post!

Even those who prefer not to voice their stories aloud are not safe this time around. The memory does not need to be willingly recalled in essence in order for Mu will shift to accommodate it in full.

Just like the last time this happened, all memories will be worth two offerings each, as if in compensation. So at least there's that!

Comments

[savedbyasong]

[It's too much. Shion can barely cope with his own... future never mind those of other people. Or was this the past. Gladio's words at the last story telling came back to him. About how it had hurt too much to be close to Ignis without telling him how he felt. I needed space and he didn't understand at all. So we just... drifted.

This wasn't drifting though. Gladio had left. Ignis was alone. Shion didn't say anything to Ignis but he moved to his side, reaching out for his hand.]

[shatteredlenses]

[It startles Ignis when Shion's hand slides into his own. He'd been so caught up in the loneliness of that memory--the pain of knowing just how quickly they fall apart--that he hadn't even heard his friend approach. The touch is welcome though, and Ignis' hand squeezes back.]

Shion.

[It's good not to be alone. Rationally, he knows he's far from alone in reality. Many people are gathered around the fire, but the memories make it easy to forget that. They are so all-encompassing. Touch is grounding, though. Touch can't so easily be forgotten.]

Thank you.

[savedbyasong]

[Touch was very important. To remember that you weren't alone, grounding and safe.]

I'm sorry you had to see it again... [Sorry that everyone had to see it. Their minds should be their own.]

[shatteredlenses]

It hurts. I won't deny that, but it's also a good reminder of why we need to change things. Of why it's not okay to just leave the prophecy to play out as it will.

[He gives Shion's hand a squeeze and then tries to give his friend a smile, but he's too emotionally exhausted right now to make it work.]

Pain is a good motivator, if not an ideal one.

[savedbyasong]

It is always possible to change things. By coming here you have changed everything. Even if the world is frozen... If you go back you won't be the same.

[It's hard to explain. But he knows he is not the same as he was when he left his world. Even looking at his futures, him killing a guard. It did not horrify him as much as it horrified the Shion in the vision. It was as if he were seeing a Shion who never left his world, who had never killed. Whereas for him watching he was only saddened that he had still not found control, found a way to not berserk. Even seeing the guards shoot Nezumi in the vision had made anger rise.

It's difficult to explain, to put into words even in his own mind.] Nothing needs to be the way we've seen it.

[shatteredlenses]

I can only hope you're right.

[Deep down Ignis wants to believe all the change he's experienced here can't just be wiped away, but he's also been back home. He's seen himself slotted back into the spot he left, and he remembers not remembering a single thing that he'd learned here.

It was terrifying.]

I can't become that man I've seen.

[And he especially can't become the man he's seen in Gladio's visions.]

I can't.

[savedbyasong]

You won't. It... It's not easy to change who you are. Who you will become. But... [He gives a tiny laugh, barely a breath of air.]

If I can change... You are so much stronger than me Ignis. You will be able to change things.

[shatteredlenses]

[Ignis nods, bowing his head slightly and forcing himself to focus on Shion's words of encouragement instead of his own doubts.]

I'm never going to stop trying, that is for certain. No matter who or what tries to stop me.

[savedbyasong]

I know. I know you won't stop trying and that's why you will change thing.

[He smiled.] Reno used to always tell me and Aster, 'Don't try, do it.'

[shatteredlenses]

It's a good piece of advice. One that can be all too easily forgotten when times get hard.

['Don't try, do it.' He just needs to keep reminding himself of that.]

[savedbyasong]

It is. Reno was very good at that. Giving out good advice.